


stole the show

by reylofics



Category: Twenty One Pilots
Genre: Guilty Pleasures, Implied/Referenced Cheating, M/M, Marriage, Past Relationship(s), Unrequited Lust
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-07
Updated: 2019-04-07
Packaged: 2020-01-06 00:34:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 897
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18377297
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/reylofics/pseuds/reylofics
Summary: josh is getting married and tyler reminisces





	stole the show

Josh is getting married. Joshua William Dun is getting married today to the love of his life.

When he was little, Tyler Robert Joseph always thought it would be him that Josh would be standing by at the altar. Before he even knew what the proper word to describe his sexual identity was, he knew it had to be him. Tyler Robert Dun had been scribbled onto the back pages of his diary more times than he could count. Tyler and Josh against the world.

And truth be told, it had always been Tyler and Josh against the world. They had taken on the world together from a young age, just not in the way that Tyler wanted them to until they had reached their senior year in high school. For as long as he could remember, they had always been best friends. Not much had ever changed between them except for the small blip in time when they had, in Josh’s eyes, awkwardly dated in their senior year of high school. In Tyler’s eyes, it was the most perfect time in his life. Of course, he didn’t know that Josh had secretly been seeing Debby behind his back. Either that, or he just chose to be completely ignorant to the subtle touches that Josh would place on the small of Debby’s back when they were all out in public; unbeknownst to Tyler, the relationship that everyone considered Joshua Dun to be in was the one with Debby, not the one with Tyler.

Years later, seconds before declaring their vows to each other, Debby and Tyler were still unaware of the predicament that they had unknowingly been placed in with Josh during their senior year. Tyler’s wife, Jenna Joseph, was also oblivious to the love triangle, since she had dropped into Tyler’s life two or three years after Josh had broken up with Tyler and started publicly dating Debby during their freshman year in college. Truth be told, Tyler had always secretly resented Debby for this. But when Josh gave him an ultimatum of either supporting him and Debby or never talking to him again if he couldn’t “find the ability to be happy for your best friend”, Tyler was forced to warmly accept Debby’s “new” presence in his best friend’s life.

Oddly enough, Tyler had never brought up the incident again. Even when Josh tried to guilt trip him for going out with Jenna Black, kissing him in the doorway of their shared dorm room, asking him, “Does she kiss you like I do? Make you feel how I feel? Touch you like I do? Love you like I do?” Even then, when Josh had thrown the L word out in his last desperate attempt to keep Tyler in his back pocket as a partner rather than a best friend, Tyler didn’t dare to bring up the incident.

Josh had still been dating Debby when he had kissed Tyler, too. He knew this and everyone seemed to know this and still, the thought of sneaking around behind their girlfriend’s backs and hooking up in their dorm room seemed thrilling. Tyler had to admit that Josh always seemed to bring out both the best and worst in him. He admired the other boy’s eccentric tastes and his impulsive behavior but at the same time, he feared it.

But Josh wasn’t a monster. Tyler knew that Josh would never make him do anything that he wasn’t comfortable with and when Tyler had walked out of their dorm room and never spoke of the kiss again, Josh had gotten the message. After that, Josh hadn’t done anything remotely similar to what they had done in their previous romantic relationship. In the months preceding Tyler’s wedding, there was definitely a great amount of sexual tension in the rooms between both men but out of respect for the women in their relationships, neither man had acted upon their primal, almost lustful feelings. 

Josh would never admit to it but the whole situation seemed a little too “Brokeback Mountain” to Tyler. It was ridiculous to insinuate that they were still in deep, unequivocal love after all these years, but there was no denying the strong feelings that went beyond friendship that circulated the channels of emotion in Josh and Tyler’s relationship. Even so, both boys had managed to somewhat move on with two different women that were stable and comfortable, for lack of better descriptors. 

And maybe it was love. Maybe they still did love each other after all these years. And maybe, in another timeline, a different timeline, Josh and Tyler would’ve taken the chance to be together.

But in this timeline, this universe, Josh and Tyler decided to settle on what they both perceived as the healthiest decision for the both of them. It was the least toxic decision, the one that would end in a minimal amount of heartbreak.

Knowing this, it was easy for Tyler to ignore the twinge of pain that he saw on Josh’s face at the entrance to the room when he turned and saw the other boy patiently waiting at the altar for the soon to be newlywed. Quickly enough though, almost as if it had been practiced and perfected a numerous amount of times before, Josh resolved the gritty composition on his face and flashed a dazzling smile towards his audience.

Show time.


End file.
